Archives for: June 2004

Yep, it is time once again for that ubiquitous summer family vacation. In our case that means cramming four extra-long people into a very small automobile (I will never own a mini-van or an SUV) and heading out on the highway...looking for adventure...in what ever comes our way.

Actually, we are returning to visit family in the Midwest. We will be spending most of our time in a summer cottage on Lake Michigan with my brothers and their families. Should be extra cozy. But to be by a large body of water is like manna from heaven. I’m having to psych myself up for dealing with mosquitoes though - we don’t have them here in Colorado. I know, I know, last year Colorado had the most reported cases of West Nile Virus of any state in the U.S. I’m still trying to figure that one out. Last year I saw maybe 3 mosquitoes all summer so I don’t know where all these infected skeeters are.

Of course there is the food issue to deal with, both in traveling and being with family. We always bring a cooler of “good” food with us when we travel, and my parents live close to a nice health food store. But I do know there will be lot’s of chicken, fresh tomatoes, and corn on the cob on the table, so I will try to prepare better options for myself. We’ll see how I do, my parents can be insistent on certain foods that they think are healthy. My husband is great at eating in compliance, so I will lean on him for support.

Just finished making tapes for the trip; I have eclectic tastes in music so they include everything from Turkish folk music to The Stones. Should keep everyone awake and on their toes.

I will be back writing soon... in the meantime be well, breathe deep, relax, and have fun!

A while ago, I went in for a checkup with my naturopath. As I have been healthy and feeling good for a few years, I wasn’t anticipating any ‘bad news’. All was going along swimmingly until she took my blood pressure. A puzzled look crossed her face and she pumped up the cuff again.

It was 130/82. I have never, ever in my life had an elevated blood pressure reading. In fact, I am most often in the lower ranges of normal, about 110/70. I was shocked. I certainly hadn’t expected this.

Prior to taking my blood pressure, she had asked about any stresses I have been experiencing. I talked about the state of world affairs and the part the U.S. is choosing to play in all this; having a son who is approaching draftable age and knowing that the U.S. government is already gearing up the draft boards for reinstatement... yeah, that would be enough to drive a mother’s blood pressure up a titch. But I had a sinking feeling that wasn’t the only reason. I agreed to come back in a few weeks to have my BP rechecked.

As I was driving home from my appointment, I thought about what I had been doing lately to relax and I realized...nothing. I had been doing nothing to relax. I couldn’t remember the last time I had practiced yoga except for a few stretches here and there. Knowing that B’s not only respond to relaxation practice, especially with BP management, but that we really need to relax in order to stay in balance, I made a commitment to myself to incorporate more relaxation into my daily schedule.

I have found throughout the years that relaxation has to be practiced on a somewhat regular basis to be most effective. It is almost like my muscles forget how to release completely if I am sporadic in relaxation practice. So when I am ‘rusty’, I use the tense/ release technique until my muscles relearn how to let go again, consciously tensing all large muscle groups and holding for a few seconds, and then releasing. This is best practiced lying down, and most effective doing several rounds of tensing/ releasing. After some practice, it becomes easy to relax just through conscious intention. Also, deep breathing exercises and dancing are great stress relievers for me. I highly recommend the books “Relax and Renew” by Judith Lasater and “Conscious Breathing” by Gay Hendricks for some excellent guidelines and practices that are easy to learn and master. Both of these books have made a tremendous difference in the quality of my life and I reread and refer to them over and over again.

So, a few weeks later and I am running errands close to my naturopath’s office and decide now would be a good time to have the BP checked again. I try to relax as I drive over there but ‘knowing' I should relax makes me all that more tense, and it is difficult for me to relax in traffic. Having long given up being concerned about what people think of me singing in my car, I decide to sing as loudly as I can as a stress reliever. So I belt out a few to the Moody Blues and feel the tension drain from my body.

And guess what?? BP was 118/82 that day. I’m sure the relaxation practices of the past few weeks was helpful in lowering my blood pressure, but in that moment, it was the singing that did it.

I read recently in the Blood Type Encyclopedia that chanting and singing are part of the Antistress Protocols for type B.

After all the rain we finally had, the sky was that brilliant blue we get up here, the air scrubbed clean from all the dust, pollen and pollutants, the sun bright but the air cool... my favorite kind of weather. It was only about 70 degrees F, usually we are in the upper 80’s/low 90’s by now.

So, I packed the boys up and headed to My Favorite Garden ( see a previous blog) for a morning hike. My boys are quite troopers on the trails now and it is I who has to struggle to keep up. I know I talk a lot about hiking but it is my favorite activity and I have time now to indulge since summer is our down season in arts admin. In fact, this is the first year I am not teaching dance/creative movement in a summer program and although I do miss it ...I really don’t all that much...quite a surprise.

Anyway, back at home and after some upper body strength training, I decide to tackle, literally, the garden. I get stuck in the perennial border bed. I had intended to just putter in the garden, but once I started, there was no turning back. What a mess it was. My youngest son finally rescued me from the savage salvia with requests to pick some lavender to dry for his room. He is quite the budding herbalist and at 10 years old, had a list of about 17 medicinal herbs he wanted for his garden. We settled on 6 - horehound, lemon balm, peppermint, hyssop, thyme, and calendula, since we already have chamomile, comfrey, sage, and parsley.

My father gardened for a hobby and my grandfather gardened for a living. I grew up with acres of flowers that my father grew, all started in an old-fashioned glass-sided greenhouse. I was an adult before I knew you could really plant a seed directly in the ground and it would grow.

So I guess you could say a green thumb runs in my family. I get my B gene from my father, and I suspect his father was a B as well. Perhaps it’s the B gene that makes my thumb green.

Yesterday, to celebrate my son’s birthday, we decided to go out for breakfast. Realizing too late that it was Father’s Day we soon discovered that all the good restaurants were already taken. So... we ended up at a notorious chain restaurant. Hoo boy... what to eat here. I decided on the Denver omelet, after all, I do live in Colorado. It was passable, fortunately not much ham in it. But even when eating mainly compliant foods there is a BIG difference between organic and mass-produced food in the quality of the meal. I didn’t have any digestive upset after but sure felt like I had consumed inert matter instead of food.

Went for a long hike up a new ridge that mainly mountain bikers use. Quite lovely views of the foothills and even hiked high enough to clearly see Cheyenne Mountain behind the hills. Lot’s of black clouds out over the plains though. There were a couple tornadoes on the plains as well. We stopped for awhile to watch a Black-Chinned hummingbird soar quite high and plummet into a death defying nose dive and then actually perch on a dead branch.

There is a saying in these hills that if you have gone on at least 20 hikes, then chances are you have been watched by a mountain lion. I wonder how many times we’ve been watched. I have never even seen lion tracks, well, that I have recognized as such as they do resemble dog tracks without the claw marks. Nor have I seen a bear and they are quite prevalent here.

Since we were celebrating my son’s birthday, of course we had cake. I substituted with spelt for the flour but the rest was the usual less than healthy ingredients. But that’s cake for you.

Today is another(!) day of clouds and rain. It would be nice if we didn’t get our rain all in one go. I am so used to the sunshine that I feel sleepy and lethargic without it.

I have again agreed to speak before our district school board on a ridiculous policy change the administration is proposing and I am already beginning to feel butterflies. Although I have been told that I speak well, public speaking is not something I enjoy. But I do like challenging myself and this is one more way I can stretch beyond my self-imposed limitations of who I think I am.

Unfortunately for my children, this is what their mother turns into during summer vacation. Patrolling the rounds of snack refuse, looking for gross displays of non-compliance. One would think that it is harder to monitor their eating during the school year - not so! They both are creatures of routine, and eat quite compliantly during the year; O son has eggs, turkey sausage, and cinnamon raisin sprouted grain toast for breakfast, A son usually has homemade granola with soy milk, and occasionally turkey sausage or an egg. Lunches are typically almond/peanut butter sandwiches on spelt or sprouted bread, fresh fruit, organic corn chips/spelt pretzels, multigrain bars, etc. Of course, they could always ”trade” at lunch but since we have always eaten weird food by typical American standards, I have never worried about that much. I remember my oldest boy on his first day at a new elementary school telling his classmates that his family eats seaweed. “First of all, dear, it is ‘sea vegetable’ and not ‘seaweed’, and secondly, you might want to think twice before telling your friends about the food we eat.” Nothing like branding yourself as a weirdo on the first day of school.

Ever since finding out my sons blood types, I realized that the BTD would be very difficult for us as a family to adhere to. We do keep a myriad of food choices available at all times but, alas, one person’s bene is another person’s avoid. Sigh. So I have always thought that the best I can do is educate them about what foods are healthy for them and why, as well as emphasize the universal neutrals in meal preparation.

Until summer vacation comes. Until mother sees what food choices they make when they have the time and inclination to do so. And they are at both ends of the extremes with this one. My sweet, darling, youngest one is hyper compliant, not letting one tidbit of honeydew melon (a favorite) cross his lips, while the big, grumpy teenager says, “Mom, I just need food!” OK. What to do. With my O teenager, since we do tend to grow them tall in our household, I understand the “just need food” scenario. But I do strongly encourage him to add more animal protein to his food choices and need to remind him to lay off the carbs. My A son needs a different approach. I do encourage him to eat a little more broadly than I think he would normally choose, letting him know that it is OK to eat honeydew melon once in awhile, just not all the time. He could stand some loosening on many levels and I think enforcing strict dietary guidelines is not at all healthy for him.

I do frequently have a plate of attractively arranged raw, sliced vegetables and fruits placed in a prominent place in the kitchen, so when they come a’grazing, it is the first thing they see. And it does always get eaten. Another strategy is to make the choices for all meals, not just dinner, and to enlist their help in the preparation.

And lately, I have noticed them looking up info in ER4YT, and also asking questions about what is healthy and what not for their blood type. Just today, my type O son asked, “If Grandpa is a type O, why is he a vegetarian?”

Maybe this is all sinking in after all. Perhaps it is time to retire the police uniform.

I woke up late this morning, quickly gulped down a bowl of homemade granola and organic cow’s milk, grabbed two plums and raced out the door late for an early morning meeting. As I was at this meeting, I noticed myself becoming tense and uneasy. Then I remembered that I have a stress management plan! So I first checked in with my breathing and sure enough, I had abandoned healthy belly breathing and was trying to squeeze air into my constricted upper body. Some conscious release of muscular tension and my breathing began to flow naturally again. I ‘checked in’ with my breathing several times throughout the meeting and was able to relax each time with conscious effort. As the meeting wore on, I noticed my blood sugar begin to fall. I ate my two plums, but knew I really needed protein as I often do mid morning. Instead of sticking it out, I decided I was more important than the meeting and left the meeting early, honoring my commitment to my stress management plan. I don’t think I could have left the meeting if I hadn’t made that commitment to myself first.

Back at home, I quickly heated up some leftover lamb stew with basmati rice, and a couple turkey hot dogs. Then I went for a vigorous walk with a friend to help dissipate the residual tension and mental agitation from the morning. We hiked around on the beautiful trails of a nearby nature center. I returned home later that afternoon relaxed, centered, and in sync with myself. Usually, I carry stress from meetings with me for a long time. This was such a welcome change.

Who ever is out there doing a rain dance for me, you’re my hero! We have had rain for not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR days in a row! Liquid gold falling from the sky. Of course, this would be the week that I had planned to catch up on some over due gardening and other outside chores. But I’ll take the rain... I could do without the hail though.

Yesterday was one of those days that I feel lucky anything at all made it into my mouth. I vaguely remember some fresh fruit, lot’s of yogurt, some leftover wild caught salmon (thank goodness for leftovers) and lightly sautéed chard, leeks, and garlic, and... I was so frazzled I don’t remember what else I ate. Well I wouldn’t call it eating exactly, more like ingesting. Or robotic fueling. Definitely not healthy.

While I was in the midst of this, I remember pausing briefly thinking, “this is not good” and felt that I needed a plan to help me cope with stressful/frazzled days. Maybe you are like me and are derailed by busyness too. I often feel that when I am out of kilter, it takes me a long time to find my way back home (centered and balanced) again.

So, here is my plan for me and maybe you too will find something useful in it:

1. The first sign that I am experiencing stress is a change in my breathing; it shifts from belly breathing into chest breathing, my shoulders and chest are tense and I feel like I can’t catch my breath. Paying attention to my breathing patterns is the number one key for me in being centered. Relaxing my abdominal muscles and consciously breathing into my belly brings me back into balance.

2. Having my meals planned in advance and always having healthy snacks with protein is essential when I am on the run. Food deprivation is a HUGE stress for me and has been my entire adult life. You’d think I’d know that one by now. Some of us it takes longer, I’m afraid.

3. This is the hard one for me: to not let myself get caught up in other people’s dramas or in situations I cannot control. I do have that tendency to feel other people’s feelings and to be outraged at the injustices perpetrated on others, especially by large institutions and organizations. I often feel a need to champion the underdog and there are times I just need to let.. it.. go.

I am most definitely going to try this plan in the days ahead... I’ll let you know how it works.

Last night, to “celebrate” my husband’s birthday, we all, boys included, spent the evening helping a friend with her dance school’s annual ballet performance. If you’ve never worked backstage in a theatre before, it is a given that something will ALWAYS go wrong, the surprise is that there is no way of knowing or anticipating what that will be. In this particular theatre, the light board has shorted out during a performance, but we were assured that that had been fixed. Fortunately, lights and sound went off without a hitch last night. It was the lovely bubble machine that I was in charge of that decided to act up, spewing bubble juice (which I think is an avoid for all blood types) all over the stage and can present quite a hazard for a dancer in pointe shoes. Luckily, no one was injured except a prop that got mangled by the curtain closing. Coulda been worse.

This morning, after a breakfast of millet cooked with carrots, garlic, and ginger, plus an egg and Ezekiel toast, I decided we needed to do at least something resembling a birthday celebration. Since my husband does not enjoy eating in restaurants (really!!), we went to see the new Harry Potter movie with our youngest son. Now I know for the most of you, going to the movies is par for the course but not in my family. I have never really enjoyed going to the movies and usually get quite bored about twenty minutes in, wondering when this will end and I can go home. In fact, I only went to two movies the entire decade of the 90’s - Ghost and Apollo 11, or, 9, or whatever it was. Now, if I go see a flick it is usually a foreign film with subtitles or an independent film. But... I must confess... I do love all of the Harry Potter films, even in all their Blockbuster, Hollywoodized genre. I have read all the books and never tire of the same old story line; I think it is wonderful fun and the movie was exceptional. So there you have it. Maybe I am a simple-minded sappy American after all.

After all that sitting earlier in the day, some exercise was definitely needed. I made sure I ate a snack before exercising (yogurt with a plum and a nectarine) and dragged my family off for a long hike in the cañon. It was gorgeous there, as always, but quite hot, especially on those evil switch backs. The stream was still flowing well, always a good sign of decent snowpack this year. We still so desperately need rain though...

It was our “watering day”, we are on water restrictions and are permitted to water lawns two days a week for 45 minutes. So back at home and watering lawn and garden, hoping now that at least our trees will survive the drought. I’ve about given up on the lawn.

Today I am writing with a heavy heart. One of my teenage son’s friends was killed in a roadside accident two days ago. He was struck while assisting a motorist push a stalled vehicle by an 18 year old driver who had momentarily glanced away from the road to adjust the tuning on a radio station. Although my son did not know this boy well, the reality of how life can change in an instant hits home hard.

In talking with other parents of sons, I notice that one of our biggest hopes is that they just survive the teenage years. Just survive. Make it through. We’ll all feel blessed if they just survive. I often think how teenagers are given some of the responsibilities of adulthood without the experience in life to back it up. I know this is crucial for learning but I just wish they could know everything first. I know, I know, I have to let go and let the world have its way with them, whatever that may be. Parenting tears at one’s heart like nothing else.

My father-in-law stopped in for an impromptu visit. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I resisted the corn tortilla chips, although I did deeply inhale the wonderful scent of these freshly made corn beauties - can you tell corn is one, well, OK, my most difficult avoid food to truly avoid? I do love corn, and it is so obviously toxic to my system. Ironic, isn’t it? So not having one, I repeat, not one morsel of a corn chip was an accomplishment. My burrito meal had a couple of avoids, mainly guacamole, which I hardly ever have, and some tomato chunks which I easily picked out. The rest was neutrals with maybe a beneficial or two ( shredded beef, a few beans, wheat tortilla, cheese, green chili). When we go out to eat, I feel lucky if I can find a meal that has mainly neutrals and few avoids. Fortunately, I don’t eat out often. The real test is how I feel afterward and this time I felt OK with no digestive distress.

The rest of the week was stressful, school board meetings, committee meetings, task force meetings, I’m about meeting’d out. And next week it’s more of the same. So right now I’m going to relax, take a couple of big breaths, give my boys great big hugs...

Making the switch from a wheat diet to non-wheat grains can be daunting at first. Especially in the pasta department. We use spelt pasta and rice pasta in our house; it works with all the blood types we have living here. But let me tell ya... all rice pasta is not created equal! When we first started experimenting with rice pasta, we were very disappointed with the results. Most brands had a grainy, unpleasant texture or disintegrated in the cooking water. We finally settled on a brand that remained al dente if cooked in a very precise amount of time, one second past the timer and... ooops, mush for dinner once again.

And then that fateful day while shopping at my favorite whole foods store, I saw a new brand of rice spaghetti on the shelf... Tinkyada. I thought that it might be an Asian import but when looking at the package I saw that it was made in ...Canada??? Hmmm. That’s interesting. The store owner saw me looking at the box and came over to say what a marvelous product it was. And they advertise on the box that it is not mushy. I had to try it.

Well, I tell you, when I tasted this wonderful al dente pasta I almost heard angels singing. It is really that good! The only ingredients are stone ground brown rice, rice bran, and water. I don’t know how they do it. It really tastes and has the texture of semolina and other wheat pastas. And it does not get mushy. It does have a tendency to get sticky as it cools after draining so it is important to plate it while it is still hot or toss with some oil. You will have a gooey mass if you don’t.

Tinkyada makes all types of pasta: spaghetti, spirals, penne, fettuccine, small shells, jumbo shells, etc. We did have to experiment with the cooking times a little bit, but that is always the case in high altitude. Pasta takes longer to cook up here and with the “grand shell” (marvelous for stuffing), I cook them almost twice as long as recommended.

If you can’t find Tinkyada products in your local health food store, ask them if it can be ordered for you. We order several varieties by the case. Pasta stores well in a cool dry place, and then you always have some on hand when you need a quick meal. And maybe you too will enjoy rice pasta bliss.

Today began like any other summer day, waking at 4 AM and not being able to fall back asleep because it is too hot. Got hubby to open the bedroom window to the delightful aroma of strong skunk scent. Shut the window and lay in bed ruminating. I finally took a couple cal/mag caps which helped me and my over tired legs relax enough to fall back asleep.

The previous evening, my family and I went with a friend on a hike up North Cheyenne Cañon along a ridge with stunning views. Although it was gorgeous up there with the wildflowers and even columbines nestled in amongst the rocks, the trail begins with vicious, monster switch backs that turned my legs immediately to jelly. Our friend is a little mountain goat and can scamper up any cliff face with ease but us long-legged folk have a little more difficulty with steep climbs.

I did finally awaken and began my day with a breakfast of homemade granola with sliced nectarines and cow’s milk. After about 45 minutes of delicious yoga, I sat down to respond to a couple of reader’s questions. Time for lunch and I heated up some turkey hot dogs for me and the boys. Thank God for turkey, we gotta maximize those universal neutrals in our house. We were out of hot dog buns (probably a good thing) so I substituted a spelt tortilla which worked quite well.

The rest of the day was spent puttering around in a relaxed, aimless fashion. Did a few errands, watered the garden... you know the routine. Very much needed though because next week is going to be both busy and stressful. I do much better with stressful situations if I can rest in advance.

It actually rained in the afternoon and if you used your imagination, you could come close to saying there were puddles on the sidewalk. I almost went out to dance in the rain (I have been known to do that) but it was over soon and out with the blistering sun again.

I made salmon for dinner and hubby made rice pasta with steamed veggies. We often share dinner making, that way there is something for all 3 blood types in our house.

Since it is now June I can officially say that I have reached a new milestone in my overall health: I have not had one upper respiratory infection for an entire year. Zero. Nada. Zip.

This is a huge event in my life since just a few years ago I suffered from chronic sinusitis and frequent sinus infections. Every single cold (and there were many) ended up in a sinus infection. At about the time I started the BTD I also purchased the book “Sinus Survival” by Robert S. Ivker. Dr. Ivker is a D.O. and part of the American Holistic Medical Association. In his book, Dr. Ivker relates his own struggles with chronic sinusitis and how he healed his sick sinuses. And as of the writing of the book, he had been free from chronic sinusitis for almost 8 years and for almost 5 years had not had one cold. When I first read that information I thought to myself , “That will never be me. Never.” And now here I am on that same path; I can’t remember when I last had a sinus infection and its been at least a year since I had my last cold. I began to reflect on the past year to see if there were any significant lifestyle changes that could have played a factor.

Some background information: I live in a geographical region where it is difficult to have healthy sinuses. We have what is known as an ‘inversion season’ during the winter months where warm air aloft traps colder air and pollutants close to the earth. My city also uses coal for its energy source which creates a higher level of particulate matter in the air. And I live in an arid or semiarid climate that makes for very dry air to breathe. It is no wonder that sinus infections are the number one reason for seeing a doctor out here.

Certainly, following the BTD has played a crucial role in my overall immune system health, but what else? I do use a saline nasal spray and occasionally nasal irrigation to keep those mucous membranes healthy. And we have a hydrometer to measure humidity levels in our house. But I have been doing that stuff for years. There are only a couple of things that I did differently, but I think they are keys for me, and perhaps other B’s as well.

Firstly, I started following more closely the exercise recommendations for type B’s, which for me meant letting go of some of my strength training beliefs. When I trained for 4 days a week, for an hour to an hour and a half a session, I was too exhausted to do anything else. I feel much better at 3 times per week for about 40 minutes a session. And I also increased the cardio and exercised with others which played a significant factor in “mood control”; I just feel happier when I exercise with others.

Next, I rested. A lot. It was a priority. I did not allow myself to get overtired. On those rare occasions when I did recognize I was doing too much, I dropped everything and hit the bed. If I knew in advance that a stressful week was coming up, I would get extra rest in preparation.

But lastly, and most importantly, I challenged myself in ways that I hadn’t before, taking on new tasks, trying on new roles out in the world and, in a sense, reinventing myself. One such example is participating in this blog project. I submitted my application on a whim, and afterwards thought “What am I doing, I don’t journal, I can’t write!” I can sing, I can dance, I can do the hokey pokey, but I always viewed myself as a non-writer. And then it hit me, I needed to challenge that long held belief.

Sooooo... here I am. Challenging that belief with every blog I write. I know that not only nurturing the creative part, but also stretching my self concept in new and exciting ways is vital to my overall health and wellness. I bet it is for you too.

Yes, I did wake up but rolled out of bed? ah...no on that one. Creaked and groaned was more like it. Lot’s of aches and pains this morning and to top it off my foot was aching more than ever. We went hiking up in the High Country yesterday and I chose to ignore the pain in my foot which increased with every step. I can’t even figure out what I did to injure it in the first place! Man, this getting older sure does bite sometimes. So, now I have to scratch my exercise plans for today and let my body tell me what it needs.

I started with one of my favorite breakfasts: fresh fruit topped with yogurt and freshly ground flax seed and a big pot of red raspberry leaf tea. My husband made his famous breakfast millet, which is my favorite way to eat millet: millet cooked with carrots, garlic, ginger and tofu and topped with tamari. I had a bowl of that as well, only without the tofu.

Next, off to the living room to do some much needed stretching. I did a little meditative movement and tuned into what my body was needing today. I decided to take time throughout the day to stretch and move in a way that felt nourishing until I felt better.

Now, off to the garden to water my feeble attempt at a vegetable garden this year. We are so so so dry, I am not hopeful that my plants will even survive, let alone bear fruit.

Inside, more stretching and then off for my harried morning commute - a whole 15 steps from my kitchen to my office. Having survived the traffic jams, I settle down to work on preparing contracts for our upcoming season. Realizing I need a little more protein this morning - you know the feeling - foggy, tired, sapped of strength - I head to the kitchen for half a can of sardines. Back at my desk a few minutes later with renewed strength I work tirelessly until lunch: leftover lamb chop with prune/cranberry chutney, and a large salad with snow peas, rice croutons, and way too much buttermilk/feta dressing. I’m feeling much better now.

Before heading off to a committee meeting down at Citizen’s Project I have a cherry Larabar, a new energy bar made from dates, almonds and unsweetened cherries all mushed together and shaped into a rectangle - very good! I was focused and relaxed during our meeting even when discussing and problem solving distressing events occurring in our community, something that can be difficult for me. I think my food choices and body tuning earlier in the day played a large part in my staying centered.

Back home and baked vanilla scented halibut with hollandaise sauce, boiled potatoes and steamed cauliflower with snow peas for dinner. By now I have even forgotten that I felt awful when I awoke. In fact, I only remembered when I sat down to write this blog.